Coronavirus Impact: 3 Ohio Companies Announce Layoffs

CLEVELAND — Three large Ohio companies announced layoffs and furloughs this week, according to filings with the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.

The I-X Center in Cleveland, once the largest indoor event space in the U.S. announced it was shuttering after 35 years in business. Company officials blamed the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.

"The global pandemic has decimated the event industry as well as many other businesses and has ultimately led to this decision," a company official said in a news release.

With the I-X Center closing, 39 non-union and 36 union employees will be laid off. The workers were previously furloughed in May, with hopes of returning to work when virus-related restrictios were lifted.

With the event business decimated, the Hyatt Regency in Columbus also announced it was making the "difficult decision" to make permanent the layoffs of 192 employees.

"We initially anticipated that employee furloughs/layoffs at the hotel would be temporary," a company official said in a letter to the Ohio government.

Lerner, Sampson & Rothfuss, a law firm in Cincinnati, is extending the furlough of 90 employees. Firm leaders said they believe the furloughs will be temporary.

Here are all of the companies that announced layoffs this week:

• Lerner, Sampson & Rothfuss in Cincinnati — 90 employees
• I-X Center in Cleveland — 75 employees
• Hyatt Regency in Columbus —192 employees

Job growth in Ohio slowed in August, drawing the concern and ire of groups like Policy Matters Ohio.

“More Ohioans returned to work last month, but jobs recovered at a slower rate than in July, when employers called back 63,300 Ohioans, and substantially slower than in June, when employers called back 213,200 workers - five times as many as they did last month. Meanwhile, policymakers have compounded the hardship by letting vital unemployment benefits expire,” said Policy Matters Ohio researcher Michael Shields.